Te'o to Couric: I am 'Far From' Being Gay

When television personality Katie Couric asked Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o if he was gay, Te’o said he was “far from it.”

In his first television interview since it was revealed that his girlfriend who he thought had died of leukemia had never existed and was a hoax, Te’o appeared on “Katie”–Couric’s syndicated daytime talk show. The interview aired on Thursday.

Courics said there were “many theories making the rounds” that Te’o invented a fake girlfriend to “cover up your sexual orientation.” When Couric asked Te’o if he was gay, Te’o responded that he was not.

Here was the exchange:

Katie Couric: “Are you gay?”

Manti Te’o: “No. Far from it. Far from it.”

Couric and Te’o share a publicist. Earlier, reports indicated the man behind the hoax was the person who had been calling Te’o. That man, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, was impersonating a female voice that Te’o thought was Lennay Kekua’s.